ninth.

[eaglet]

[Connor sounds slightly out of breath when he dictates into the journal, mostly because it's so cold outside but also because he's been working pretty hard out there.]

Before I came to this world, I had left my village for six months. I have now been in this place for nine. There are still things I do not understand about both this world and the world outside my village, but I am learning, I think. And there is much to learn.

I have been interested in exploring the Dead Zone again. The god of this place has the power to move us and to transform our surroundings, but I would like to explore on my own terms. There is much to learn here amongst each other, but I feel as though there is even more to learn out there.

[Connor can be found on the castle lawn, packing a long wall of snow about a foot tall, taking care to carve a furrow down the middle. He has acquired some gloves that don't really match the rest of his outfit -- they have a reflective strip down the side and are also neon pink.]

Comments

[eaglet]

[He thought it was just for decoration! Future stuff is stupid, he doesn't know.]

I do not know. I did not enjoy cheese...

[molotov]

When did you eat cheese? There are hundreds of kinds, and even more ways to eat it. You cannot just eat a block of cheddar, you know.

[eaglet]

[He shrugs, glancing back at the wall he was building.]

Shortly after you suggested it to me. It disagreed with me. I do not know what kind it was.

[molotov]

You must have eaten too much. I will take you for pizza some day.

[eaglet]

And what is pizza?

[molotov]

Bread with tomato sauce and melted cheese on top, in addition to meat and vegetables.

[eaglet]

[That sounds... very unappetizing...]

I see...

[molotov]

[Um, no, it sounds delicious, because pizza is the best food in the whole world.]

I will make sure you have some sometimes. You will see.

[eaglet]

Then I am looking forward to it. [No he's just being polite...]

[molotov]

I promise, it is good. Do you want any of this other food? How is your gingerbread?

[eaglet]

[Wow, he hasn't even had any yet. Connor blinks, looking down at the cookie, then breaks off a piece and tries it.]

[molotov]

[Well, maybe eat faster then, buddy! Molotov watches him, then digs around in her box for a candy cane, which she begins to unwrap for herself.]

[eaglet]

[Consensus: Weird.]

How is it so crisp? I have not had bread or cake like this before.

[molotov]

Well, it is not bread or cake. It is... more like a biscuit. In the regular round shape, they are called ginger snaps.

[eaglet]

Hardtack. [Which he's not actually had, but Achilles mentioned it in passing once.]

Where I am from -- or perhaps it is when I am from -- it is similar to a cake, I think. Ginger-bread.

[molotov]

[Molotov doesn't bother explaining the difference between hardtack and a ginger snap.]

Oh, we have that too. We just call it ginger cake. But the gingerbread men are traditional for Christmas.

[eaglet]

Yes, so I have been told. It is often cut into the shapes of saints by the colonists -- not simply in the shape of men.

[molotov]

Well, I think that it is just easier to do general little men, probably. That, and most people are less religious in my time.

[eaglet]

Are they? Why is that?

[molotov]

[Molotov shrugs, and takes a lick of her candy cane.]

Mixing of cultures, changes in education, general disillusionment.

[eaglet]

[Okay, 'general disillusionment' makes him frown, but more importantly --]

People do not retain their cultures?

[molotov]

They do, but there is no rule against sharing and absorbing the good parts of other cultures as well. All cultures have something worth learning and utilizing.

[eaglet]

But to the extent where they no longer hold their beliefs?

[molotov]

I think it simply opens their minds to other possibilities, and they make their decisions from there.

[eaglet]

[No wonder she was so adamant that gods don't exist, then... the future is just getting bleaker all the time.]

I see.